Cricket becomes political football in Mallorca

With a sun-bleached pavilion, a wicket of concrete and synthetic grass, and an outfield that resembles a desert planet from Star Wars, it is hardly Lord's.

But the home of the MCC - Mallorca Cricket Club - has become a burning issue in the forthcoming Spanish council elections.

With polls due on May 27, its future is being batted around by the two main parties scrambling for control of Calvià council, which serves its home town of Magalluf.

Calvià's 2,500 British expatriates, who can vote in local and European elections, are being wooed by the socialist PSOE, which has criticised the plans of the incumbent centre-Right People's Party to move the club and redevelop its nondescript ground as a hotel and apartment complex. At the last election in 2003, ex-pats helped the People's Party win by a margin of just 258 votes.

The MCC is based on scrubby wasteland, and raises funds to cover its overheads by hosting touring sides from Britain.

But it pays only a peppercorn rent of €10 (£6.80) a year, and its landlord, a partnership between the council and a Madrid-based property company, has agreed the plan to develop the site.

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The local Socialist leader, Antoni Manchado, has never seen a cricket match, but promises to overturn the decision if he is elected mayor. "We must guard the future of cricket in Magalluf and not let the developers win," he said.

The sitting mayor, Carlos Delgado of the People's Party, has countered by offering to move the club to a better location nearby, though its 60 members may have to pay some of the bill. "So long as I am in charge, the club will always have a home in Magalluf," he said.

Club members are treading carefully. The captain, Frank Leavers, 55, said: "We've been batting here for over 20 years and we're looking to score at least another 20, whether at this ground or at a new location."

Many other ex-pats, meanwhile, are bemused. "The Spanish seem to believe we British are totally obsessed with cricket," said John Rule, a retired businessman. "Most Brits living here couldn't care a jot about the game. They're too busy playing golf or going for a hard day's sunbathing on their yachts."